Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Armin Landeck: Prints

Armin Landeck: The Catalogue Raisonne of his Prints

Writer: June Kysilko Kraeft, Norman Kraeft

Publisher: Southern Ill. U Press, Carbondale,

Year: 1994.

Condition: Very good condition.

Price: $95.00

Armin Landeck’s New York City scenes reveal his fascination with the patterns and oblique perspectives of buildings. He traveled to Europe after earning an architecture degree in 1927. Returning home in 1929, he was unable find work in his field because of the Depression. Instead he began printmaking, to which he devoted the rest of his life. In this example, a dramatically deep perspective guides the viewer down a narrow alley towards a carriage and a tiny shadowy figure.
 Landeck identified this as a street where horse-drawn carriages from Central Park were kept. Instead of portraying lively action, he emphasized tall buildings which effectively shrink the carriage and figure to small objects, lost and melancholy in the streetscape.
Alleyway
Alley off Sixth Avenue
12th Street Walls
11 West 11th Street